Ain't No Sunshine
by purplecheshirecat
Summary: They were going to lick the Alliance in a month. Only they lied.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Ain't No Sunshine

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I don't own anybody but anybody you don't recognize

Summary: Love triangle of sorts with someone from Mal's past coming back to want... that can't be right.

* * *

"Well, that went easier'n a three dollar whore," Jayne Cobb was used to being thought a pig, so it didn't phase him much when the rest of the crew either didn't respond or rolled their eyes. He laughed happily, swilling his over-priced beer and thinking of what he was gonna do with his cut of the loot. He'd send Ma about a quarter this time. More'n usual, but he was getting' more'n usual so it evened out.

"I'm gorram happy to be getting' that Lassiter off my ship, that's for sure." Malcolm Reynolds took a bite of his fried chicken and chewed thoughtfully. It'd been a long time since he'd been back to this planet. Not since the war, anyway. The war and-

"The last time we were in this place it was a piece of gose bar with two tables, piss flavored beer, and we're not even going to get into the food," Zoe took an appreciative bite of her cornbread. "Seems unification agrees with Dixie more than they thought it would."

Mal grunted, "This whole place's gone prettified."

Kaylee leaned forward eagerly, picking at her sweater and glad to have a reason to step out of her role as ship's mechanic for a while, "What'd the place used to look like, Cap'?"

"Well, this fancy restaurant used to be a hole-in-the-wall bar for the field hands on pay day."

"That pretty church we passed comin' in with the gold and the stained glass used to be the garrison," Zoe supplied. "And _none _of this other stuff was here."

"Planters realized there was money to be had, started buyin' up second houses and such near where the merchants were settin' up shop to show off their cash," Mal took a bitter bite of his chicken and chased it with a swig of beer.

"So a one horse town turns into a big ole city when the rich folks decide to show off and the tourists decide to put down roots."  
"S'even got it's own whore district."

"Guess where Jayne's goin' after dinner," Zoe's husband Wash muttered under his breath.

"Aids the digestion," Jayne winked, "Ain't that right, 'Nara?"

"I"m sure I don't know what you mean," The companion sniffed.

Jayne laughed lasciviously, "My foot, woman, you was busier'n we was this trip."

"It's true, I did have a few Clients this trip-"

"Now we _know_ Dixie's not the backwater it used to be, Zoe," Mal interjected.

"But," Inara shot a heated glance at the captain, "being a companion is considerably different than a common whore on the Tenderloin."

"How so?" Mal's tone challenged and he ignored the waiter bringing the check, "So far, only difference I see's the clothes."

"Well, for example," Inara rose gracefully and placed a few credits next to her still-heaping plate, "_You_ could never afford me. Even after the money from fencing that antique." She was gone in a swirl of silk and Mal cursed colorfully in Chinese.

"That was fun," Jayne reached for Inara's untouched plate and dug in.

"You really _are_ a rutting ape, aren't you?" Doctor Simon Tam looked disgustedly at the mercenary and wondered again what the man's purpose in life must be.

"To many nutrients to gift the dispensary when it expects halves and thirds," River Tam supplied helpfully to her brother, swiping the roll from the plate before Jayne could claim it.

"What'd she say?" Mal asked, reaching for credits and not really paying attention.

"Waste not, want not," River translated herself and took an overly large bite of the bread.

* * *

"Don't _touch_ me, Clayton Butler!"

"Now you listen here, you little whore, I"m takin' what's mine and you bein' willin' don't really matter much a'tall," Clay Butler's handsome face leered and the woman side stepped. They were in the pretty Front Street house- his now after his father's death- and their voices bounced off the vaulted ceilings.

She brandished the wickedly sharp letter opener from his father's desk in his face. He glared. Her eyes flicked through the foyer, trying to find means of escape. She feinted left, then took off right, but her yards of skirt and corset hampered her and she tripped.

"Get your hands _off_ me! Clay, _please!"_

* * *

"Well, that was damn near the best meal I've had this side of the 'verse," Jayne rubbed his hand down his belly and belched loudly.

"Glad you enjoyed it, s'gonna be the last real food we have for a while."

"Oh, come on, Cap' maybe we can get some extra supplies- I saw a grocer at the end of the street," Kaylee was already trying to dissect the secret ingredient to the cherry cobbler.

"No. Soon's I can remember how to get back to the sip we're leavin'." Mal stopped in front of a house so full of stained glass it fair glittered and looked down both directions of Front Street. "I never much cared for this gorram planet."

"S'not how I remember it, sir," Zoe slid her hand easily into Wash's back pocket. "We came from that way."

"Yeah, but we was lost then too. Seems t'me a drunk midget designed these-" Mal was cut off by a sound that shook the windows of damn near every house of the street. He turned like everyone else.

The big oak doors were opened and a woman stood silhouetted and shaking at the top of the front steps. She was breathing heavy and at first she stumbled, but then she was running down the stairs and straight into a very surprised wall of mercenary.

Mal's mind ticked away quick details about the woman Jayne had to grab to keep from falling. She was pretty but her lip was bloody and her eye was swollen. The black velvet dress was expensive and hung ripped open to her waist. She was holding a silver letter opener in her hand. Her breasts nearly heaved over the lilac brocade of the corset. His mind clicked into place, "Liandra?"

Her attention was focused so entirely on Jayne it was like she was blind. Her voice was urgent, shaking but strong and it left no room for argument. "You _have to help me_. He'll kill me."

"Liandra you whoring slut of a social climbing _bitch_!"

She gasped, nearly clawing her way up Jayne's chest. And then she surrendered to the blackness.

* * *

"Actually, there's nothing here to make me think she's experienced any kind of trauma before today."

"Did he...?"

"She's hurt pretty bad. I've staunched bleeding and staved infections but there's some rippage and-"

"Well I wanna know what that gou cao de thought he was doing!"  
"I've never seen anybody hurt that bad down th-"

"Don't worry, Little Kaylee, he won't be hurtin' nobody any time soon."

"Jayne I didn't know you could fight like that with a coupla hundred pounds'n your arms."

"Aw' she don' weigh more'n one-ten soakin' wet. S'that feng le dress that's a pain in the-"

"Well I think it's best she stay with me-"

"You think that's a good idea, Mal?"

"Zoe, I'm the captain and-"

"She fell inta _me,_ she should stay with me."

"I see I missed an interesting time."

"Howdy, Shepherd!"

"Eyes go from black and cold to technicolor confusion."

"I see you picked up another stray."  
"Inara! When'd you get back?"

"Where're my clothes, please?"

Everything stopped.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Ain't No Sunshine

Rating: Eventual NC-17

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Joss Whedon's brainchild.

Summary: They said they would lick the Alliance in a month. They lied.

Notes: Sorry it took so long to update this fic, motivation is key. If anybody's reading it then please please puh-leaze review because I crave them so... And please forgive me in advance for mangling the Chinese language, whichever one I happen to stumble upon via online dictionary, anway.

Liandra woke up to voices. There was confusion. She kept her eyes closed for as long as possible, coming to terms with her surroundings. She realized she was naked under the sheet. _That_ was what made her open her eyes.

The people were crowded into the smallish room, each inserting their own opinion and it was disconcerting. None of them, not even the doctor, were paying her any attention whatever. And she was naked. She didn't like being naked. Ever. "Where are my clothes, please?"

There was a very stunned silence in which nobody said anything. Then a man she thought she would never see again stepped out from behind a shepherd.

"We cut that gorram steel cage off you and-"

"Malcolm?"

He clenched his jaw, pointedly ignoring her, "What wasn't tore to pieces or ripped to tatters got set aside," he took a deep breath, "Costly frippery, Liandra. Seems whoring agrees with you."

She flinched for a split second beneath the blanket. Zoe stepped forward, "Captain-"

"Who was he, Liandra? He couldn'ta been an old client, Doc says this's the first time you been slapped around. Or did he catch ya stealin' some 'a that fine jewelry you were wearin'?"

"Cap-"

"Well, Liandra? 'S been near'n ten years and your in a pretty mean business. I figured Doc'd find more battle scars'n-"

"He was my stepson, you ill-conceived, dull-headed, cad!" In her temper, Liandra sat straight up. She dropped the sheet, letting the anger get the better of her. In the second it took her to realize she was exposing her bare bosom to the room, she dove back under the cover of the thin material. Liandra blushed a thorough crimson. "Could you all, please, leave us for a moment?"

Mal was irked, "I'll thank you not to tell my crew what to do, you-"

"Aw, hell, Mal. She's embarrassed."

"I don't care if she's-" Mal broke off, surprised to see his mercenary strip off his button-down flannel and hand it to the woman cowering under the sheet. Liandra took it gratefully, her blush tinging purple as she set about buttoning herself into it. Mal shook his head, "Jayne Cobb, what in the-"

"She fell inta me, and I saved her, so's-"

"Good Lord, the ape-man's got a sense of responsibility," Simon handed Liandra a glass of water and a small tablet, at her guarded look he shook his head, "Mild pain reliever," and set about continuing his examination now that she was fully awake.

"Liandra," Zoe leaned forward and shot Mal a heated look, "You said he was your step-son?"

Liandra sighed, waving the doctor away she began rolling the long sleeves of the shirt up her forearms. "I did. And... he is. Well, was. We buried Franklin two days ago." She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her cheek there. She looked so forlorn for an instant Mal almost felt sorry for her. Then the bitterness took over again.

"Di'you kill him?"

"Mal!"   
"Captain!" Kaylee sounded shocked at the very idea.

"It's my understanding, Captain, that this lady is the victim here," Shepherd Book stood in the doorway and somehow managed to roll equal parts questioning respect and righteous indignation in waves.

Mal rolled his eyes, "Thing you gotta understand about _this lady_ is-"

"Is that the captain's a might biased seein' as how Miss Liandra Van Gelder once turned him down flat after a bonafied proposal of marriage."

"Well I'll be a qingwa cao de liumang-"

"It didn't happen quite like that," Liandra murmured, obviously scandalized at Jayne's language.

After the minor bedlam of Zoe's announcement, Mal started talking again, his tone angrier than before. Liandra understood, airing one's dirty laundry in public was incredibly humiliating. For her, anyway. "Yeah, I wanted to marry her. Got down on one knee and everything. Only _she_," he said the word with such venom that Liandra sat up straighter and Zoe and Jayne both opened their stances. Going from listening to ready-for-anything. "_She'd_ rather have her father sell her off to some backwoods madam to whore her out the the rich planters."

Inara's eyebrows furrowed, "But Mal, that doesn't make any sense. The Van Gelder name carries weight. Even now, they're very well off-- and she would have been to old to be a comp-"

"Well maybe her daddy didn't like her steppin' out with a soldier," Mal shrugged wide, anger flushing his cheeks ruddy. "Anyway, ask _her_." His arms were crossed over his chest and he leaned forward from the doorway, positively daring Liandra to tell him he was wrong.

"Actually, Mrs. ... I'm sorry, I-"

"Butler, Shepherd," Liandra wrapped the warm flannel of Jayne's shirt more securely over her shoulders. "Mrs. Franklin Butler," Liandra fingered the space where her wedding band would be. Her jewelry glimmered from a tray on the counter. She wondered why the doctor had removed all of it.

"Yes, Mrs. Butler," The Shepherd edged past Mal and settled himself on the bench next to a waif like girl whose knowing eyes made Liandra both vastly uncomfortable and safe at the same time. "I'd be very interested to hear your story." He shot Malcolm a warning glance, "If you're willing to share it, of course."

"Of course," Mal's voice dripped sarcasm and Liandra refused to look at him.

"My father was... he didn't _sell me_ to a _brothel_," she pushed her hair behind her ears and knew without having to look it was a shambles. "When I met Malcolm I was very young. I was frightened and excited and I thought it horribly romantic to love a soldier. And I did," She pinned Mal with a look he knew was just for him and a smile he told himself he didn't want, "Whatever you believe, I did love you."

He snorted in response.

Liandra pulled her knees to her chest again, knowing it was an unladylike pose and not caring one whit. "Papa said _like marries like_ and he wanted me to marry someone like me. That _woman_," She looked pointedly at Malcolm again, "Was a matchmaker, and I wasn't _sold,_ I went willingly."

"I seem to remember offering-"

"There was a war on, Malcolm!" Liandra heard the desperation in her voice and damned herself for it. How many times had she told herself this? "A war you were going to win in a month, remember? You were all going to lick the Alliance and send them scrambling home-- only two years later you were in threadbare uniforms and nowhere closer to-" She saw the look on his face and sighed from somewhere deep inside herself. "Papa corresponded with Grandmere and she suggested Lady Ogden. She told Papa about Franklin Butler and that was that."

You could have told him no." Mal's hurt pride was a palpable thing and Liandra shied away from it.

"He would've-"

"I'd've protected you, Liandra!" He shoved off the door frame and in two steps was at the exam table, his hands rested on either side of it and his face was so close to hers she had to close her eyes against the smell of sweat and oil and leather and _Mal._"Why did you turn me down? The truth this time."

She sighed, knowing he'd never truly understand and knowing that she'd have to hurt him all over again. "You weren't one of us."

"Cap-!"

The Shepherd overrode Kaylee's surprised tone, "Take a walk, son," His voice was insistent. He held Mal against the wall, one hand to his throat, the other holding the wrist of the hand that would have backhanded Liandra. Liandra sat on the exam table tensed for flight and wondering how a _Shepherd_ had moved that fast.

"Shepherd-" Mal's voice tapered off. His anger was still obvious but now it went more along the vein of impotent rage.

"I said, Take. A. Walk. Son." Shepherd slowly eased his hands away and Mal shook himself like a prise stallion. One heated glance at Liandra that spoke volumes and he was out the door.

"I don't give a houzi de pigu where she sleeps."

Liandra was silent until his boot steps faded. "It was a long time ago," She finished quietly.

There was a tense silence.

"The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves."

"River," Simon began reproachfully and shooting an apologetic glance at Liandra. "You'll have to excuse my sister, she's-"

"You know what charm is," Liandra began conversationally, more to Simon-the-Doctor than to River-the-sister, "A way of getting the answer 'yes' without having asked a clear question."

"Stupidity has a knack of getting it's way," River-the-sister answered sagely. Simon-the-Doctor sighed.

"My sister is having a conversation with a _Van Gelder_ in Camus," he didn't sound particularly surprised. Just resigned.

"In what?" Jayne didn't necessarily want to know, but Mal's ex was interesting in that Librarian-Could-Go-Horny-Wild kinda way.

"Camus, ancient French philosopher," Simon answered, trying to figure if he should be worried or happy that Liandra seemed to understand River.

"Simon?"

"Yes, mei-mei?"

"Reason is a whore. Surviving by stimulation, versatility, and shamelessness."

"Thank you, Emile Cioran."

"I think she's telling you to butt out, Doc," Zoe said, amused. "You were saying, Liandra?"

"Yes, I was," Liandra sighed, "Franklin and I... we understood each other. I was happy. Then he died. Clayton- his son- felt that I belonged to his father's estate. After his death, I belonged to Clay." She rolled her eyes, "Like a lampshade, I suppose."

"Nobody normal tries to screw a lampshade," Jayne muttered under his breath.

"Well, I think we've established Clayton's hardly normal," Liandra answered archly.

Jayne had the good grace to flush.

"I never did thank you, did I?" Liandra asked, catching him off-guard.

"No ma'am, but-uh, well-," The merc was suddenly uncomfortable, not sure why. "It weren't nothin'-"

"It was to me," She turned to Zoe, "So what happens now?"

"Well, we'll be pretty far from Dixie soon," Zoe sighed, annoyed at having to play diplomat to Mal's pig-headed emperor but being to much of a friend and second-in-command to complain, "You're welcome to stay with us for a time. There's room in the passenger bay, and we could let you out at the next port—or wherever you fancy. It's not what you're probably used to-"

"I'm sure it will be fine, thank you, I'll need-"

"You're more than welcome to borrow from me whatever clothes you require," Inara put in smoothly, choosing to ignore what Mal's reaction to _that_ would be.

"You're very kind," Liandra answered. "I'd love to lie down if that wouldn't be-"

"Of course, you'll want to sleep," Simon interjected offering her his arm in assistance off the table. Years of manners resurfaced and he was the gentleman, helping her small, perfectly pedicured feet to the floor. "If there's any pain, my quarters are just down the hall from yours."

"You're very kind," Liandra repeated, leaning on the offered arm because it was offered and it was habit.

"Like she's a gorram doll," Jayne muttered under his breath.

"She's so pretty," Kaylee offered, watching Simon lead her down the hall and mulling over what the lady had said.

"Yeah, under all them bruises, I guess so," Jayne shook his head. She'd just walked off with his favorite shirt too. Dammit.

"Awe, come on Jayne, don't you think so?"

"She'll turn inta one of them high-society pieces that thinks they're better'n ever'body else and we'll have ta kowtow to her ever'whim. You'll see."

"She seemed right nice to me, Jayne."

"Just you wait, Kaylee. Mal's probably right to be rid of her." Jayne shook his head at the way the Doc was struggling against her weight. Poor thing wasn't hardly anything when he had to carry her. Simon Tam was a hun dan, and that was that.

River glared over her shoulder at the mercenary on her way out of the room, almost as though she'd heard his thought."Jayne is a girl's name."

And _that_ was _that._


End file.
